This agreement was signed on 28 October at the Elysée Palace in the presence of François Hollande and the Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez, who was visiting France. It covers research, innovation and training in the field of digital technologies and its applications in the “vertical” sectors such as energy, health/biology, transport, the environment, the agri-food industry, and finance.

A partnership in research, innovation and training

This agreement bears more precisely on collaborative multidisciplinary projects and on jointly developed technological platforms (in particular on Big Data and the Internet of Things). These platforms will support projects ranging from genomics to the automatic detection of fraud during mobile payments, from the optimization of pastureland to the optimization of energy. Joint investments, exchanges of researchers and experts, and the co-supervision of PhD students will form the basis of its operating mode.

The agreement also concerns innovation and the support of new companies through existing incubators in the two countries. It will facilitate support of the growth of French companies on the continent and the penetration of the European market by South American companies.

As regards training, this agreement involves the creation of a group of experts, “Data Scientists”, in Uruguay, and the hosting by ICT4V of IMT engineering students as part of their international placement.

ICT4V: a center built around the French LINCS model, open to all of Latin America

Created on 25 June 2015 as a public-private partnership and supported by the Uruguayan government, ICT4V (Information and Communication technologies for Verticals) has already brought together 14 partners: 5 universities and research centers, 7 companies and 2 public bodies. Its premises are located in a Technology Park which provides a true ecosystem. This new center has already established structuring links with other countries on the continent, in particular Brazil, Chile and Argentina, and its mission is to expand its network in Latin America. Daniel Kofman, a Franco-Uruguayan and Full Research Professor at Télécom ParisTech, initiated this agreement after working on the creation of ICT4V using the innovative model of the LINCS laboratory that he runs: “The ICT4V model brings academics and industrialists together in one place, with a flexible and progressive organization, and appropriate infrastructure. This allows for the development of strong synergies, the acceleration of the innovation process, and in particular the creation of societal and economic value”.

For IMT, it is an opportunity to deepen its relationship with Uruguay, a country that is particularly advanced in the field of information technology, as well as to expand its relationship with all of Latin America.

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IMT is a public institution dedicated to higher education and research for innovation.

It is a key player in the fusion of science, engineering and digital technology, and takes its schools’ skills into the major fields of transformation in digital technology, industry, energy and the environment as well as their impact on the industry of the future, cities, health, and autonomy.